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Little Mix: DNA (SyCo)

If Girls Aloud are the present, then last year’s X Factor winners Little Mix are the girl-group of the future.

Their former mentor Tulisa believes her ‘little muffins’ have fully grown up, but this debut suggests they remain a work in progress, albeit one with a great deal of energy and promise.

The vocals are unexpectedly potent, with the harmony singing of Perrie, Jesy, Leigh-Anne and Jade blending impressively on the big ballads Change Your Life and Turn Your Face.

Still got a way to go: Newbies Little Mix with their debut album DNA

There are inventive sonic flourishes too – a choral middle-eight on the title track, neat classical guitar on Going Nowhere and military drums on Stereo Soldier.

With the band’s songwriting team including Nicola Roberts (Girls Aloud), Shaznay Lewis (All Saints) and Tionne Watkins (TLC), there are links to girl-groups of the recent past, suggesting that Little Mix have still to fully find their own signature sound.

But this is still a solid start – a launching pad for them to build on an enduring British pop tradition.